


Unfound

by CommChatter



Series: Change of Destiny [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 20:17:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2360954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommChatter/pseuds/CommChatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A simple supply run for Rebel Jedi Ardeth Vao and smuggler Miranaken'yon turns out to not be so simple after all. set post Change of Destiny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfound

**Author's Note:**

> Ardeth and Mirana are two of my OCs, and, in this story my goal was to do a character study of the duo. It has since taken on a life of its own.

A tremor ran through the cockpit as Second Chance exited hyperspace over Ryloth. The planet loomed in front of them, large, red, and barren, looking almost completely devoid of life. Its five moons were arrayed in a ring around it.

“Doesn’t look particularly hospitable, does it?” Miranaken’yon commented, glancing over at her copilot.

“About as endearing as Tatooine.” Ardeth Vao said, staring at the homeworld he didn’t remember. “Less, actually.”

“When we set down, we’ll be on the night side, so we’ll be safe from the sun. As soon as your supplier makes contact, we can load up and get out of here.”

“Never that easy Mirana. You should know that by now.”

Mirana flicked one of her lekku at Ardeth, hitting him on the shoulder. “Killjoy. Am I allowed to hope?”

“Sure. But you probably jinxed it now.”

“I didn’t think you Jedi were superstitious.”

“We’re not.” Ardeth returned. “But you should never say something is easy. That’s just inviting something to happen.”

“That’s why I brought you along for.” Mirana grinned. “You and your lightsaber.”

Ardeth put a hand over his heart, feigning offense. “And here I was thinking that you wanted me around for my good looks and winning personality.”

Mirana smiled. “Those are just added bonuses, Ardeth.” 

Ardeth snorted and shook his head, remembering the exaggerated grin and thumbs up Raoul Tano had given him before they had left the base. “Yeah. Sure.” He drawled.

Mirana settled Second Chance onto her landing gear. After powering down the engines, Mirana stood and stretched, reaching toward the ceiling of the cockpit, her back flexed with audible cracks. Straightening up, she snatched her gun belt and a black nerf hide jacket off the out of the empty navigator’s chair.

“Thank you for flying Kenyon Air. Please file out of the cockpit in an orderly fashion and have a good time dirt side.” Mirana said with a flourish of a dusky red hand towards the ramp.

“Yeah, thanks.” Ardeth rolled his eyes and adjusted his vest before following her through the ship and out into the underground spaceport.

The scent of exhaust and fuel, a fairly common scent on any of the Rebel bases, was almost overwhelming, hitting the two Twi’leks like a wall as they stepped off the ramp. The cavern where the spaceport was located was at the bottom of Ryloth’s capital of Kala’uun. 

Kala’uun itself was built into a hollow mountain. The upper levels were where most of the cantinas and other businesses were. The lower levels were residential, and off limits to offworlders. The two Rebels would only be visiting the upper levels.

Securing the lock, Ardeth turned and followed Mirana into the spaceport. It reminded him a lot of Mos Eisley, actually, except for the fact that this one was underground. And a whole lot cooler.

“On Tatooine, we were able to live above ground.” Ardeth commented; starting as Mirana threaded her fingers through his.

She smiled at him. “They can go out on the surface here, too.”

“At night.” Ardeth grumbled, allowing Mirana to steer him into a shady-looking cantina. 

The cantina was dark, with a Bith band playing an upbeat jazz tune in one corner. Two female Twi’leks danced to the music, using their scantily clad bodies and shapely lekku to their full advantage as they moved with the energetic music. Colored lights danced around the band to play off the Biths’ pale bulbous heads, and gave the two dancers, one pink, the other green, an almost wraithlike quality. 

The tables and stools around the bar were dimly lit by grimy glow panels that looked like they hadn’t been washed since the Clone War. The tables were slabs of some sort of rock, and, like every other bar that Ardeth had had the misfortune of visiting; they were pockmarked with carbon scoring. The walls were also dotted with evidence of past shootouts. From the gouges on the floor, Ardeth guessed that the tables also made good shields and could be flipped to take the worst of the blaster bolts. 

“Remind me again why we come to these places.” Ardeth said, eyes roving around the cantina.

“’Cause here we blend in with all the other riff -raff.”

Ardeth paused in the doorway. “Riff-raff?” 

Mirana raised an eyebrow at him. “If we were running something legitimate, would we be here? Would anyone be here?”

“That’s encouraging.” Ardeth commented.

Mirana grinned. “It’s not supposed to be.”

“I can tell.” Ardeth muttered under his breath, following Mirana down the stairs and weaving through the tables to the bar, ordering drinks that they had no intention of drinking, and finding a table in the back with a good view of the entrance.

“I’d feel better if we’d brought Raoul with us.” Ardeth grumbled, pretending to take a sip of his drink. It was a disturbing shade of florescent aqua blue and smelled absolutely vile.

“He’d stick out too much.” Mirana murmured back.

“I know.” Ardeth griped; resisting the urge to check his boot to make sure his lightsaber was still there.

“Can we trust them?” Mirana asked, surveying the bar carefully, noting an argument between a human and a Twi’lek that could potentially turn into a brawl.

Ardeth sighed and leaned back against the wall. “As much as we can trust anyone these days.”

“That’s not particularly encouraging.”

Ardeth gave her a slightly mocking grin. “It’s not supposed to be.”

“Oh, shut up.” Mirana huffed. Ardeth laughed softly.

Silence descended on their table. It wasn’t an awkward silence as it would have been two years before on their chaotic, self-appointed mission which had served no real purpose other than a chance to form a bond between the members of their group. This silence was easy, companionable in a way that can only be achieved between friends who know each other so well that no words are necessary.

The door to the cantina opened, admitting a tall, dark skinned human and a chestnut furred Bothan.

“That’s them.” Ardeth said, sitting up straighter as the two strangers wove between patrons and tables to the bar, collected drinks and took a meandering path around the barroom to their table. Mirana shifted around to sit next to Ardeth, and the newcomers took the other side of the table, Bothan on the inside, human next to him.

“I’m Gordon Walker. This is my copilot, Girov Oktra’bun.”

Ardeth shook hands with the two smugglers. “You’ll understand if we don’t give you our names.”

Walker didn’t seem particularly happy about that. He offered a predatory half smile that immediately set off all of Ardeth’s internal alarms. “Not at all. We’ve dealt with Rebels like you before.”

Mirana tensed next to him, and Ardeth leaned back, away from the table, fingers closing around the handgrip of his blaster.

They hadn’t told Walker that they were rebels.

“Really?” Ardeth asked, easing his blaster out of its holster.

“Really.” Girov agreed, thunking a heavy blaster down on the table, pointing it at Mirana’s chest. The doors to the cantina opened and stormtroopers entered, shoving their way through the bar’s various patrons.

“Sonuvagundark!” Mirana hissed as Walker and Girov stood, blasters leveled at them.

“Why?” Ardeth asked Walker.

Walker spread his arms in a half shrug. “What can I say? The Empire is paying more.”

“I bet they are.” Ardeth muttered darkly, feeling a stormtrooper’s hand close around his arm to pull him out of the booth. He flipped the table. It landed on its edge with a deafening crack of rock meeting rock, and, judging from Walker’s shout, it had landed on his foot. Ardeth really hoped it broke bones. 

Ardeth and Mirana vaulted over the back of the booth and bolted out a side door into the alley beyond, and ran. They bolted across streets and through alleys, even scaling a fire escape before they finally stopped running. 

“This is officially FUBAR.” Mirana said, breathing hard and leaning her back against a wall.

“Yeah,” Ardeth agreed, sucking in great gulps of air. “Let’s get back to the ship and get off this rock.”

Mirana stood. “That’s the best idea you’ve had all day.” They both dove for cover as blaster bolts showered bits of adobe down on them. “How do you suggest we do that?”

Ardeth returned fire before responding. “No idea!”

“Hsst!”

Ardeth spun; blaster leveled at… a teenage male Twi’lek crouched in the shadows farther down the alley.

“This way!” The teenager hissed, waving at them.

Ardeth and Mirana exchanged looks and shrugs before sprinting after him. 

Jinn was never going to let him live this down, Ardeth thought. And neither would Raoul. Those two clowns were practically joined at the hip. They were also the absolute worst to get into a prank war with. Ardeth had learned that from experience, despite Luke’s warnings.

Their guide led Ardeth and Mirana through more alleys and a couple of small shops before they were reasonably sure they’d lost any stormtrooper tails. They were deep in the residential part of Kala’uun before their guide finally stopped.

“Just follow my lead, okay?” the kid said, turning to face them. He had aqua blue skin and brown eyes, and his mouth was pressed in a firm line.

“Why are you helping us?” Mirana asked. Ardeth nodded in agreement. He was wondering the same thing.

“The Empire killed my brother.” 

Sometimes, Ardeth thought, not knowing was better.

“I’m sorry.” Mirana said quietly.

The younger Twi’lek accepted the apology with a twitch of his shoulder, then said, “My name’s Terue.”

“Mirana.” Mirana said. She hooked a thumb at Ardeth. “Genius here is Ardeth.”

The corners of Terue’s mouth twitched at Ardeth’s irritated glare. “We need to get you off the street. I can take you some place safe.”

“Safe is good.” Ardeth agreed, nodding.

Terue smiled. It was just a flash of white teeth, but it was there. “This way.”

They had been walking for almost an hour, keeping to shadows and side streets, when a voice called out to Terue.

“Terue Vao, what in the name of all that’s holy are you doing out this late?” 

Ardeth stole a look at the younger Twi’lek’s face as he stopped, grimaced worriedly, and then turned, a bright smile on his face. “Numa! Hi. I’m uh, going home now.” 

Ardeth didn’t miss that Terue had edged between the older woman and them, blocking her view of the rebels. 

Numa, an older, slightly overweight green Twi’lek, eyed Terue seriously for a moment before nodding. “You make sure to keep your sister off the streets. The stormtroopers are out again.”

“They’re always out.” Terue’s response was clipped, and Ardeth was fairly sure that he hadn’t meant to say that.

Numa jerked and looked around the deserted street nervously. “You need to be careful, saying things like that.”

“Everyone’s thinking it! If people came out and did something about it, the Empire would have fallen a long time ago!” Terue burst out, louder than necessary, given the dark, empty streets and small businesses around them.

Numa looked stricken as she looked around again, clearly expecting an Imperial squad to materialize out of the shadows. “Go home Terue. Quickly.”

Terue spun on his heels and took off at a quick jog, Ardeth and Mirana pacing him. Ardeth was suddenly thankful for his training under Rex. While Mirana was puffing along, Ardeth was able to keep the pace easily.

Finally, Terue led them into an alley behind a residential building.

“You can’t take us to your home!” Mirana protested, following Terue’s gaze. “We’ll put your family in danger.” 

“My brother was killed by the Empire, and my mother died last year. Dad hasn’t crawled out of bottle since. It’s just me and Aaliyah now.” Terue yanked the door open. “Are you coming or not?” 

“Yeah.” Ardeth said; catching the door before it slammed shut and holding it for Mirana.

Terue led them through a dark hallway and into what had to be a main foyer. An empty desk stood in the middle of the dark room. The floor was unkempt, and covered in a thin layer of dirt and grime. The place looked like it would have once been a grand place, but, like so much else since the Empire’s takeover, it had fallen into disrepair.

Without turning to look at Ardeth and Mirana, Terue said, “I’m not sure if this qualifies as ‘home’.”

There was a hole in one wall that led to a dark turbolift shaft. Ardeth filed it away as potentially useful information and followed Terue and Mirana up an old set of wooden stairs that creaked and groaned ominously with each step they took. They would have advance warning if anyone was coming after them, Ardeth thought.

The stairs got progressively worse the higher they climbed, until Ardeth was sure his boot was going to go through the next stair. He started to get nervous when he felt the staircase sway under them. From Terue’s lack of reaction, it was a common occurrence. It was not a comforting thought. 

Terue unlocked one of the apartment doors and led the two Rebels inside the small, one room apartment. The carpets were threadbare, and worn completely through in some places. There was on old lounger that could be folded out into a bed in one corner, and an old rocking chair in another.

A small table and three rickety chairs were set up by the kitchenette. Empty bottles and cans that had once contained various types of alcohol was littered over almost all available surfaces. Ardeth decided he agreed with Terue’s assertion.

A rush of movement had Ardeth and Mirana startling backward and reaching for blasters, only to relax again when they recognized a Twi’lek girl was in Terue’s arms. Her skin was a pale creamy color, and her eyes were a brilliant blue, similar to Terue’s. The top of her head came up to Terue’s chin. Ardeth guessed that she was maybe sixteen, the same age as Raoul and Jinn back at the base. 

“Aaliyah, this is Ardeth and Mirana.” Terue said, gesturing to the two rebels. “Mirana, Ardeth, this is my sister, Aaliyah.”

The two Rebels mumbled greetings, but Ardeth was distracted by a light fluttering sensation at the edge of his Force perception. It was clumsy and untrained, but it was there. Cautiously, Ardeth probed back gently. It was like looking in a mirror. The Force signature of the other person felt like his own did. It was odd, he thought. Only family members felt the same, like the four Skywalker siblings. Their Force signatures felt so similar that it was still hard for Ardeth to tell them apart two years after he’d met the hooligans. 

It was like a punch to the gut when he realized that the probe had come from Aaliyah. Aaliyah was Force sensitive. This conclusion led Ardeth to a second: his life was never, ever, going to be easy.

Sighing, Ardeth pulled his attention back to Mirana, who was saying something about getting back to Second Chance. Ardeth scrubbed a hand over his face- a habit he’d picked up from Rex- and interrupted Terue and his scheming on how to get the two Rebels back to the spaceport.

“It’s not that easy.” Even as he said it, Ardeth cursed the Fates and their sense of humor. Sometimes it seemed like they went out of their way to screw with him.

“It is that simple, Ardeth.” Mirana refuted.

Ardeth blew out a breath. “Not anymore, it isn’t.” He focused on Aaliyah. “You’re Force sensitive.” 

Mirana groaned and grumbled a Huttese curse. “Nothing is ever simple with you Jedi, is it?”

If Jinn had been there he would have tossed off an irreverent remark designed to either make Mirana laugh or roll her eyes. Ardeth just grumbled, “Not when you’re with us.”  


Aaliyah held up her hand like she was trying to answer a question in school. “What does that mean?”

“It means that you could have been trained as a Jedi if the Republic was still in power.” Terue said, drawing incredulous looks from the others. Terue was the same age as the Skywalker twins. He shouldn’t know anything about the Jedi. Seeing their stares, Terue shrugged. “Mom told me about the Jedi that took Ardeth before the Empire took over.”

“Ardeth.” Mirana repeated, brown eyes flicking to Ardeth.

It took Ardeth a moment to fully comprehend what was said, and when he did, he staggered back a half step and braced himself against the counter. There was a loud clatter as his hands sent bottles and cans skittering across the counter and onto the floor. It would make sense, given the familiar Force-signature both Terue and Aaliyah had.

“Yeah. Our older brother. He’d probably be-“ Terue broke off, staring worriedly at Ardeth. “You okay?”

Still braced against the counter, Ardeth shook his head. “My name is Ardeth Vao. I was rescued from the Jedi Temple when the Republic fell.” Before Terue and Aaliyah could do more than stare at him, the stairs started creaking loudly as a person drew closer to their floor.

“Dammit.” Terue hissed, as the door’s handle rattled before the lock disengaged and the door swung open. A middle aged male Twi’lek staggered in, too drunk to see straight.

“Aaliyah.” The man slurred.

The poor girl flinched slightly before she scurried forward and helped him take off the jacket that he’d been attempting to shrug off.

Ardeth felt his blood start to boil as he watched this drunken Twi’lek that was very likely his father order Terue and Aaliyah around. The other Twi’lek seemed oblivious to the rebels’ presence, something that Terue seemed relieved about as he steered the older man through a door and into a bedroom. 

“He wasn’t always like that.” Aaliyah said quietly. She was clutching her father’s jacket to her chest as she turned wide blue eyes to the two rebels. “It was only after Mom died that he started drinking.”

“What was he like before?” Mirana asked as Terue emerged from his father’s bedroom, loud, window rattling snores following him.

“He was Dad. He did everything to take care of us and Mom. Then the Empire killed her and he went off the deep end.” Terue answered, unfolding a flimsi map of Kala’uun and weighing it down at the corners with empty Whyren’s Reserve bottles on the old table. Looking up at Ardeth, Terue said, “We get you out of here, you take us with you. Deal?” He didn’t say anything about the giant bantha in the room.

“Fair enough.” Ardeth said, shaking hands with Terue. If these two were his brother and sister, it was his job to get them out of here and take care of them. Obi-Wan Kenobi was his father, not some drunk on Ryloth.

Hours later, when the bioluminescent lights flickered on, signaling the start of a new day to Kala’uun’s underground residents, the four Twi’leks met at the door.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ardeth asked. “Fighting the Empire isn’t nearly as glamorous as you seem to think it is.”

“We’re sure.” Aaliyah said.

Mirana pulled away from the window. “We need to leave. Now,” she said, striding across the room.

Ardeth, who had heard that tone before, usually right before they got into a shootout, pulled Terue and Aaliyah back away from the window before they could get a good look outside. “Time to go!” 

Ardeth and Mirana hustled the two younger Twi’leks out the door and towards the staircase, only to slide to a stop as the stormtroopers started to ascend, the stairs creaking and groaning in protest.

“There’s only one staircase.” Aaliyah said, staring wide eyed at Ardeth. 

“We could go out the window.” Terue suggested, looking just as freaked as Aaliyah.

“We split up. Mirana and Aaliyah go out a window. Terue, you’re with me.” Ardeth caught the younger Twi’lek by the shoulder and steered him away as Mirana did the same to Aaliyah.

“Where are we going?” Terue demanded, shrugging off Ardeth’s hand.

“Turbolift.” 

“But it’s broken!” Terue protested.

“Exactly.” Ardeth said. “Hope you like to climb.”

“’Hope you like to climb!’ he says.” Terue grumbled, swinging himself after Ardeth.

STAR WARS

There were two stormtroopers left in the lobby when Ardeth and Terue got to the ground floor of the building. 

An old bolt rattled in its mooring as Ardeth’s foot touched it, and both Twi’leks froze in their precarious positions, staring at the opening where the stormtroopers were.

“What was that?” stormtrooper number 1 asked.

“Probably nothing.” Stormtrooper number 2 said. “Better check it out anyway.”

A white stormtrooper helmet peered into the turbolift shaft, and Ardeth swung down like a giant pendulum and drove both feet into the stormtrooper’s face. The man was catapulted across the room and impacted the wall with a crack of armor.

By the time his partner turned around, Ardeth was out of the shaft and halfway across the lobby. He dodged a blaster bolt and whipped a buzzing vibroknife across the distance between himself and the stormtrooper. The knife caught the trooper in the neck and he went down, blaster rifle clattering next to him.

Ardeth contemplated taking it before deciding that trying to get lost in a crowd with a blaster rifle wasn’t exactly a smart idea and settled for taking the power packs instead. “Terue, come on!” Ardeth hissed, leading the younger Twi’lek out and darting into an alley.

“We need to go the other way!” Terue protested, pointing back the way they had come.

“We can’t. Stormies are that way.” Ardeth said, tapping the side of his head when Terue gave him a questioning look.

“Fine.” Terue sighed. He turned down an alley. “This should take us where we need to go.”

“Good.” Ardeth said. He pulled his blaster out of its holster as he followed Terue. It was quiet now, but he didn’t want to get caught unprepared and get them both killed. 

“Do you have a lightsaber?” 

The question was out of left field, and Ardeth stared. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

“Why didn’t you use it against the stromtroopers back there?”

“The stormtroopers know that there’s Rebels here, but they don’t know that I’m a Jedi yet. I’d like to keep it that way for as long as we can.”

“Oh.” Terue kept walking. “Do you think we’re brothers?”

Ardeth swallowed dryly. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

They turned down another alley that led to an abandoned four-way intersection.

Ardeth grabbed Terue’s shoulder to stop him from stepping out into the open. “I don’t like this.” He inched closer to the mouth of the alley. “Come on. Quickly.”  
They bolted out of hiding and darted across the intersection, only to skid to a stop as a squad of ten stormtroopers emerged from the other streets and converged on them in a large circle. 

“I hate being right.” Ardeth said, shoving Terue behind him and drawing his lightsaber. 

The fight was over quickly. Duck, dodge, deflect, slash, duck. Nine stormtroopers lay dead on the ground, some with smoking blaster wounds, others missing various appendages. The tenth though. That was an issue.

Ardeth found himself staring down the barrel of the last stormtrooper’s blaster. They were too close for Ardeth to be able to get his lightsaber around in time, and they both knew it. The stormtrooper’s finger tightened on the blaster, and Ardeth stared the man in the eyes. 

A shot rang out.

The stormtrooper’s body arched slightly before he crumpled, hitting the ground with a solid thud and crunch of plasteel armor. The back of his armor was scorched and melted where the blaster bolt had hit, right in the center of the man’s back.

Standing behind the dead stormtrooper was Mirana, blaster held up and ready. Aaliyah stood behind her.

“What took you so long?” Ardeth demanded, straightening up from his defensive crouch and deactivating his lightsaber. 

“We ran into some old friends.” Mirana said, holstering her blaster and deliberately ignoring the deep, steadying breath Ardeth took. Her body was practically vibrating from the adrenaline rush anyway, so it wasn’t like she could say anything to him about it. “They really wanted to talk.”

“Huh. And the friends that we ran into just kept trying to kill us. I feel unloved.” Ardeth said, eliciting a slightly hysterical giggle from Aaliyah. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile and retrieved a blaster rifle and checked the charge. Nodding his approval, Ardeth turned to Terue. “You know how to fire a blaster?”

“I-“ Terue started.

“Good.” Ardeth said false brightly. “Point it at the target and pull the trigger. Just make sure it’s a stormtrooper and not me before you shoot. You kill me, and I’ll be ticked.” 

“Okay.” Terue said, drawing the word out so it was two syllables. He turned to Mirana. “Is he always like this?”

“Only when he’s mad.” Mirana said, taking blaster power cells from the downed stormtroopers.

“I’m not mad. I’m annoyed.” Ardeth protested. “You haven’t seen me mad yet. When I get mad, I blow stuff up.”

“He does.” Mirana agreed, inwardly smiling at the flummoxed stares they were receiving from Terue and Aaliyah. Ardeth was channeling his inner Raoul, something he usually did when he was in a fire fight. Usually, Ardeth’s sense of humor was dry and similar to Master Kenobi’s, but she, the Skywalkers, Raoul, and Mara had been rubbing off on him.

“Did you contact Stark and let him know about the situation?” Ardeth asked, giving the universal signal to get a move on, people, which had Terue and Aaliyah scurrying after them.

“Yes. He has Second Chance on standby.” Mirana said, taking point. Terue and Aaliyah walked behind her, Terue gripping his confiscated blaster tightly, Aaliyah creeping behind him, one hand fisted in the back of his shirt like a terrified child. Ardeth, who was bringing up the rear, decided to cut her a break this time. It wasn’t like she got wrapped up in Rebel escapes all the time. Compared to some of their escapades, this one was downright tame. 

“Does this happen often?” Aaliyah asked, trotting after Terue and Mirana.

“A mission goes to hell in a hand basket? We pick up people that want to join the Alliance?” Mirana asked. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Uh,” Aaliyah started.

“What does a hand basket have to do with a mission going to hell?” Ardeth interrupted. “I thought that it was the road to Hell that was paved with good intentions.”

Mirana shrugged, lekku twitching against her back. “That too. I’ve heard some of the humans use the expression. The situation seemed to warrant it.”

Ardeth snorted and ducked under a rusted fire escape that had detached itself from its mooring and was leaning against the building on the opposite side of the cramped alley. “Sounds like something Jinn would say.”

“You know, I think I did hear it from him. He was talking to Jansen-”

“Shh. I can hear something-” Terue said, only to have Ardeth grab him by the back of his nerf hide jacket and yank him back against the wall.

“Whatever you do, don’t move.” Ardeth commanded, drawing the Force into himself, and, his face screwed up in concentration, projected it back outward. 

It wasn’t an illusion per se, just a blurring of the group’s image. When the stormtroopers looked at the Twi’leks’ stretch of wall, the stormtroopers’ eyes would just slide across them without really seeing them. It was one of the oldest tricks Ardeth had learned, completely by accident, when he was a child playing moog-and-rancor on Tatooine with other children. If he concentrated hard enough, and focused on the thought I’m not here; you can’t see me, it became true. Unfortunately, this would be the first time Ardeth would use this trick for anything with higher stakes than a child’s game. 

It worked. The group of eight stormtroopers tromped by, completely ignoring the four Twi’leks that were pressed against the wall of decaying ferrocrete. When they turned the corner, Ardeth released the illusion with a relieved sigh and grimaced at the headache that had taken residence at the base of his skull. It pulsed in time with his heartbeat. 

“Let’s not do that again.” Ardeth said, pushing away from the wall. “My head hurts.”

“How sure were you that that was going to work?” Mirana asked. Ardeth had told her about his ability to project illusions, and by her expression, she remembered that while he’d had the theory, Ardeth had never actually had the chance to test it in the field.

“About fifty-fifty.” Ardeth admitted, rubbing the back of his neck and rolling his shoulders in an attempt to release some of the tension in his muscles.

“You bet our lives on a chance that whatever it was you did would work!?” Aaliyah, who had been quiet up until that point, demanded, blue eyes flashing in her pale face, lekku  
writhing in irritation. “What if it hadn’t?” 

“It definitely won’t work if you don’t pipe down.” Mirana hissed. “If you get much louder, it wouldn’t surprise me if the whole garrison knew where we are.” 

Aaliyah glowered, but the glare on her delicate face wasn’t very threatening after facing down an irate Mara Jade. Compared to Mara, Aaliyah, with her creamy skin, blue eyes, long lekku and petite frame, was cute. But like a pitten, Ardeth suspected that she had claws to go with the cuteness, and what he had initially taken for a lack of backbone was really a will like durasteel that had been thrown off its foundation. Once she achieved equilibrium, Aaliyah would be a force to be reckoned with. She would get along well with Leia and the rest of the Skywalker clan, he thought.

“If it hadn’t, we would have fought our way out.” Ardeth told her. They were still taking alleys and unkempt side streets, winding a route through Kala’uun’s seedier parts back to the Second Chance’s hangar. They were almost there. Ardeth recognized the cantina where their latest misadventure had started, neon sign glowing over the shabby establishment’s door, loudly announcing that it was open, despite the fact that it was early in the morning. 

Following Ardeth’s gaze, Mirana smiled. “It’s five o’clock somewhere.”

Ardeth grinned and shook his head, gave his vest a sharp tug, and slipped out of the alley, blending with the crowd of beings that were moving between shops and open air cafés, Mirana walking by his side, Terue and Aaliyah trying their best to keep up and look like they belonged there. Aaliyah trotted at Ardeth’s side. She had a good sabacc face. If he hadn’t known any better, Ardeth would have thought that she was just another face in a sea of beings out on her normal daily routine. 

Terue had lost his appropriated blaster somewhere, and was keeping pace easily with his long legs. Mirana walked half a stride in front of them, eyes shifting uneasily around the other beings.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they came to the spaceport. 

“Kriffing stang.” Mirana said.

“That about sums it up.” Ardeth agreed, taking in the stormtroopers arrayed around the entrance. “They really don’t want us leaving, do they?”

“They like us too much to let us leave,” Mirana deadpanned. 

“What do we do now?” Aaliyah asked softly. “It’s not like we can just barge past them. Not out in the open like this.”

“Keep walking.” Ardeth said softly, putting a hand each on Terue and Aaliyah’s shoulders and propelling the duo onward, and away from the spaceport. Seeing an alley, he tightened his grip and pushed them into the mouth, cringing slightly at the odor that came from what he hoped was a pile of rags. Mirana followed, blaster drawn and ready.

“But the entrance is that way!” Aaliyah said, twisting away from Ardeth and pointing back the way they had come.

“And we already established that we can’t go that way.” Ardeth said, releasing Terue from his hold and walking onward, trailing one hand against the spaceport’s wall. “Mira, what docking bay were we in?”

“Twenty-eight.” Mirana said, rolling her eyes at the nickname.

Ardeth ignited his lightsaber. “Tell Stark to get her ready to blast out of here.” Then he drove the blue blade through the wall and started to cut his way through.

“What’s he doing?” Terue demanded. “They’ll hear it!”

The lightsaber vibrated violently in Ardeth’s hands as he dragged the blade through the thick duraplast that the spaceport’s walls were constructed from. Readjusting his two handed grip and pushing the blade in up to the hilt, Ardeth said, “Making an entrance.”

When the cut was finished, Ardeth levitated the oval section out and gently placed it on the ground, sending up a puff of dust. Releasing the activation plate on his lightsaber, he drew his blaster in his other hand. “Stay close to me.” Ardeth said, gesturing Terue and Aaliyah to follow. 

Mirana ducked through the hole last, and waited impatiently as Ardeth levitated the section he had cut back into place. It wouldn’t hold against a close inspection, but for now it would keep their escape route from being immediately obvious. Reigniting his lightsaber, he ran the tip around the edge, welding the edges together. “We’re in twenty-nine right now. If we go through that wall-” Ardeth pointed at the one wall in the empty docking bay. “We’ll be in twenty-eight. Does Stark have anything to add?”

“Only that the ship is under guard.” Mirana said.

“Great. Any trackers?” 

“He electrified the hull every time they tried.”

Ardeth chuckled. “That droid is spending too much time with Artoo.”

“And Ace.”

“Ace isn’t nearly as bad.” Ardeth said, thinking about Raoul Tano’s red and silver astromech. “It’s Gage that you’ve gotta watch.” It was true. Jinn Skywalker’s black and white astromech seemed determined to give Artoo-Detoo a run for his money in the personality department. The two of them were a match made in the depths of Hell, Ardeth thought.  


“How many guards?”

“Two. I don’t think they expected us to find a way through.”

“Ye of little faith.” Ardeth sighed. “Okay, you two,” he turned and pointed at Terue and Aaliyah. “Stay close. Don’t get shot.”

“Good advice.” Terue muttered. “Anything else?”

Mirana and Ardeth exchanged looks. “Don’t die.” Mirana said at the same time Ardeth said, “No, I think that covers it.”

“You’re crazy.” Aaliyah stated.

“Yep.” Ardeth said cheerfully. Then he ignited his lightsaber and drove it through the wall for the second time that day. The durasteel wall was thinner there, and Ardeth finished the cut quickly. A quick shove with the Force, and the piece of the wall fell forward, into their ship’s hangar with a loud bang of ferrocrete meeting durasteel. 

The two stormtrooper guards fired blindly before the dust cleared, and two bolts made it through the hole. Ardeth batted them back, angling his lightsaber to send the bolts into the guards’ chests. One hit its mark, but the second stormtrooper dove to the ground and rolled behind one of Second Chance’s landing struts. The ship shuddered as Stark electrified it again, and the man gave a shout of pain and pulled away, fully distracted from the firefight and making a perfect target for Mirana, whose shot hit in the middle of his back.

“Let’s get out of here.” Mirana said, stepping through Ardeth’s improvised door. “Stark! Open up!”

“Before more stormtroopers get here.” Ardeth finished her thought under his breath, jogging after her, lightsaber in hand. “Come on.” He ordered over his shoulder.

“That’s your ship?” Aaliyah asked, running after Mirana. Terue followed in her wake, matching strides with Ardeth.

“We should get a DNA test done.” Terue said suddenly, and Ardeth turned to look at him, ignoring the animated conversation between Mirana and Aaliyah.

“Let’s get off planet first okay?” Ardeth said, dodging the statement entirely. If the test confirmed what he feared it would, he wasn’t quite sure how he should react. Should he be thrilled that he had found his biological family? Ardeth had found a family in his fellow Jedi in the years he’d been a part of the Alliance. He had brothers in Jinn, Luke and Raoul, sisters in Leia, Grace and Mara, a father in Obi-Wan, a mother in Padmé, an aunt in Ahsoka, uncles in Anakin and Rex and possibly something more in Mirana- the idea of his family expanding more, giving him more to lose, more that could be used against him in the coming war terrified him. 

What troubled him even more was that he didn’t know what to feel.

STAR WARS

It didn’t take a genius to realize that something was bothering Ardeth. And Mirana was pretty sure she knew what it was. Really, she just thought he was overthinking it. If she was ever given the chance to find the parents she had been separated from as a young child, she would jump on it. And here Ardeth was, with a family he didn’t know he had falling into his lap, and he was scared. Terrified, if she was reading him correctly.

Sometimes, she just didn’t understand males. Of any species.

Clapping Ardeth on his shoulder on her way to Second Chance’s cockpit, Mirana whispered, “Head in the game, Jedi. You can worry about other stuff later. Right now I need you in the top turret.” 

“Right.” Ardeth said, leaping the rest of the way up the ramp, and scaling the ladder into the top blaster cannon turret.

“Where do you want us?” Terue demanded, scrambling after Mirana into the cockpit with Aaliyah in tow. 

Mirana was flipping switches and bringing the repulsor lifts and sublight engines from standby to flight status before she sat in the pilot’s chair, completely ignoring the younger two Twi’leks. “She ready to go Stark?” 

At the astromech’s affirmative whistle, Mirana flicked on the ship’s intercom. “We’re set to go. Be ready.”

Ardeth’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Ready and waiting.”

“Sit down and strap in. This might get a little bumpy.” Mirana said. When neither Terue nor Aaliyah moved, she twisted in the pilot’s chair even as she pulled on her crash webbing. “Well?”

“Oh!” 

Mirana rolled her eyes as the two scrambled into the navigator and copilot’s chairs. Stark gave a rude sounding warble and plugged himself into the ship’s navicomputer.  


It took surprisingly little persuasion on Mirana’s part for the traffic controllers of Kala’uun’s spaceport to let them go, and Mirana suspected the text message that they received said something along the lines of good luck. 

For all that the Empire wanted to keep them, the one star destroyer in orbit over the planet was on the far side, between Ryloth itself and the planet’s sun. It was too far away to bring its turbolasers and tractor beams to into play. As far away as it was, the destroyer only showed on her sensors as a star destroyer-sized blip, the name didn’t register. Not that Mirana was complaining. The steady pew-pew-pew, of her own laser cannon, grumbled Twi’leki curses, and whoops of victory that came over the ship wide intercom assured her that Ardeth had more than enough to worry about as it was.

“You can get us out of here… any… time… now.” Ardeth said, his sentence punctuated by the cannon fire. “It’s getting a little hot back here.”

“Working on it!” Mirana shouted back, corkscrewing her ship around several TIE fighters, juking and diving to avoid their fire.

“Work faster!” Ardeth shouted.

Stark gave an electronic squawk as the ship shuddered under the TIEs’ fire, and then gave a triumphant squeal as Second Chance finally exited Ryloth’s gravity well.

“Yes!” Mirana hissed. “Punch it!” Star lines extended across the cockpit canopy as they escaped into hyperspace. “That was fun.” Mirana said, extracting herself from her crash webbing. 

“Let’s not do it again sometime.” Ardeth said over the ship’s intercom. “Cut it a little close, don’t you think?”

“Sure.” Mirana said, standing and looking at Terue and Aaliyah. Terue’s aqua skin was pale, and he looked sick. Aaliyah’s pale, almost white skin was tinged a sickly shade of green, and her blue eyes were wide. “Oh, no.” Mirana said, pointing out the door of the cockpit. “If you’re gonna hurl, you go to the ‘fresher. No one throws up on my ship.”  
Aaliyah made a soft noise, freed herself from the webbing of her seat, clamped one hand over her mouth, and sprinted from the cockpit.

“Well,” Mirana drawled. “She ain’t gonna be a pilot.”

Terue burst into hysterical laughter. 

STAR WARS

“I thought I’d find you here.” 

Ardeth didn’t look up from the datapad he’d been staring at for the past half-hour. Like maybe if he stared at it long enough, what it was telling him would change.

Jinn Skywalker sat next to him. “Beautiful view.” Jinn commented.

It was true. The Alliance’s newest base on Yavin IV was set up in the ziggurat-like temples in the jungles. The gas giant of Yavin and the sun were vying for the biggest portion of the jungle moon’s sky, and Yavin IV’s various sister moons were arrayed across the sky as far as Ardeth could see. The unspoiled beauty of the jungle surrounded them, perched as they were at the very summit of the largest pyramid. The calls of wildlife around them added to the peaceful atmosphere. Up there, Ardeth could almost forget he wasn’t the only being on the moon.

“Can I?” Jinn asked, gesturing at the datapad.

Wordlessly, Ardeth held it out to him. 

Jinn read through the document and whistled through his teeth. Then he grinned and clapped Ardeth on the shoulder, his sense in the Force nothing but almost joyful. “Congratulations, big brother.”

When Ardeth didn’t immediately respond, Jinn bumped his shoulder against Ardeth’s. “All right. What’s eating you?”

Ardeth opened his mouth to deny it, but Jinn cut him off.

“And don’t say it’s nothing. Mirana said you were acting funny on the trip back, and Luke and Raoul noticed it too. And if Leia was here, she’d sit on you until you spilled. But she’s not here, so that duty falls to me. Now. Spill.” The younger human commanded, shuffling away slightly to sit more comfortably and staring expectantly at Ardeth, blue eyes bright.

Ardeth exhaled in a gust. “By being related to me, they have giant targets on their backs. I’m putting them in danger by being here. What if the Empire hurts them to get to me? I… I don’t… gah.” Ardeth dropped his head into his hands. If he had hair like Jinn did, he would probably have given it a good yank out of sheer frustration.

Jinn just studied him for a moment. “What about them?”

“What?” Ardeth asked, looking up.

Jinn swept his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes. “What about what they want? I talked to both of them. They wanted to come with you even before they knew you were their brother.” Jinn sighed. “It’s like us right now with Grace. She’s twelve years old. She should be worrying about some crush at school, and instead she’s bugging me and Luke to teach her to fly the X-Wings.”

“What does that have to do with Terue and Aaliyah?” Ardeth asked, confused.

Jinn rolled his eyes, and the look he gave Ardeth suggested that the answer was fairly obvious. “You can’t stop them from joining.” He held up a hand to forestall Ardeth’s protest. “What you can do is teach them to fight. To protect themselves, so that they have a chance of getting through this alive. Prepare them as best you can. You said Aaliyah’s Force- sensitive? Teach her to use it. The only thing we can do is give them the things they need to fight. After that, it’s up to them.”

Ardeth sighed again. “I guess I never thought about it that way. It makes sense.” He admitted ruefully. “I’ve been so worried about me, I didn’t think about them.”  
Jinn laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Now that your head’s screwed on straight, I’ll leave you alone.” 

“How do you deal with it?” Ardeth asked Jinn’s retreating back.

Jinn paused. “Deal with what?”

“What if one of them dies?”

The muscles in Jinn’s back and arms tightened. “We’d have to keep moving forward. Pull together.” He looked back over his shoulder at Ardeth. “And pray like hell that it doesn’t happen. Because if it does, I’m not sure how any one of us would cope.”

Ardeth swallowed hard. “What do you do with the fear that it could happen?”

Jinn blew out a breath. “When we go into combat, I put my emotions in a box. And all I worry about is getting me and my wingman through it.”

“Oh.” Ardeth nodded.

A hand landed on his shoulder. “That fear?” Jinn asked. “It’s love. You love them already, and you’re afraid of losing them. Fight for them. It makes things easier.” Then Jinn turned and descended back down the pyramid.

“Fight for them.” Ardeth murmured, turning back to watch the sun set.

**Author's Note:**

> I borrowed Gordon Walker's name from one of my favorite TV shows- Supernatural.


End file.
